Banana magnate passes away

Don Antonio O. Floirendo Sr., chairman of the Anflocor Group of Companies, a conglomerate that is now in the forefront of Mindanao’s economy, passed away recently at the age of 97.

His is a real rags-to-riches story, propelled by industry, willingness and determination to embark on new business ventures and make them succeed.

He was born on Nov. 20, 1915 in Bauang, La Union. During the Japanese era, he was already a budding entrepreneur. His widow, Dona Nenita R. Floirendo, says her husband used to ferry passengers using his kalesa for a fee. From there he established the first Ford dealership in Davao.

Business slowed down when the government imposed import controls. But the businessman was not downhearted. He turned his energies to something locally available and would-be productive if he used brawn and brains; he applied for 1,200 hectares of agricultural land. He would become a leading agricultural magnate in the country.

In 1950, at the age of 35, he established Tagum Agricultural Development Company (Tadeco), starting with abaca. With the help of foreign capital, Tadeco began phasing out abaca by 1968 and shifted to banana. By 1971, the company was already exporting its produce to the Japanese market. From then on, Tadeco continued to expand, hiring more people from the community and bringing prosperity to the entire region. Soon after, other banana plantations began to sprout in Davao del Norte.

As a patriarch, Don Antonio treated his children the same way as he treated his employees.

One of his daughters, Linda, recalled that when they used to work at one of their father’s firms, she and her younger brother Antonio “Tony Boy” Floirendo Jr. had to start early in the morning and end up in the afternoon at five o’clock.

“He’d make us plant the bananas and do the boxes. He wanted us to work all the time, he didn’t want us to be lazy at all,” added Maricris F. Brias, third among the children.

Marissa, the fourth child, recalled how their vacation wasn’t all rest and relaxation. “You will never get to the top if you don’t start from the bottom” was the line that Linda remembered her dad telling her.

Linda described her father to be a bastonero. “He was super strict, but he had a big heart.”

Proof of that was her father’s being a philanthropist. “When he put up Tadeco, he made sure that [the people there] had a hospital. He provided for their housing, and their electricity, as well as their education,” said Mrs. Brias.

But while Don Antonio’s rise to prominence seems to look easy, he also had his share of hardships and challenges which he had to overcome. All of his hard work and resilience, vision and gut-feel, did not only repay him a bountiful harvest for him and his family. Through the years, what started out as one business that expanded and became a conglomerate also continues to bless thousands of people in various cities and municipalities where the Anflocor Group of Companies operates.

Because of Don Antonio’s holistic approach to management, Tadeco has emerged as the leader in the banana industry, with many of its innovations becoming the standard in the industry. Its pioneering efforts stretches far beyond the bounds of productivity, but more importantly, into the realm of social responsibility.

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Responding to my column on the new breastfeeding bill (June 7, 2012), Rep. Magtanggol T. Gunigundo I (2nd District Valenzuela City), wrote that the proposed breastfeeding bill entitled “An Act promoting a comprehensive program on breastfeeding practices and regulating the trade, marketing and promotion of certain foods for infants and children,” is not about to be approved on third reading yet.

The proposed bill is a consolidation of four bills filed immediately after the opening of the 15th Congress in 2010. The first joint hearing on it by the committees on health and trade and industry was conducted in December 2011. A Technical Working Group (TWG) was organized and TWG meetings presided by Rep. Anthony Golez were held in February and May 2012.

The TWG, according to Representative Gunigundo, has not yet reported out the final draft to the committees on health and trade and industry since it is still in the process of polishing the breastfeeding bill “due to difficulties in reconciling all valid points and interest of all stakeholders, including representatives from WHO, UNICEF, DOH and NGOs. Since there is no final draft of the consolidated measure, no committee on health and trade and industry reports approval of the measure, “which is the only way for the bill to be included in the calendar of business of the House of Representatives.”

The consolidated bill is authored by Representatives Gunigundo, Anna York P. Bondoc, Josephine Lacson-Noel, Lani Mercado Revilla, Lucy Torres-Gomez and Rufus Rodriguez. Gunigundo wrote: “The bill promotes, protects and supports exclusive breastfeeding as the means of nourishment for nutrition for the first six months of life, and at the same time addressed the problem of nutrition in the country by recognizing the mother’s role in choosing the appropriate feeding practice for her child. (The bill) acknowledges breast milk as the ‘gold standard’ and fully supports breastfeeding.”

As I stated in my June 7 column, exclusive breastfeeding advocates want excusive breastfeeding for up to 36 months, and discourage the promotion of synthetic milk formulas by companies.

Wrote Gunigundo: The position papers submitted to the TWG by DOH, NEDA, DSWD, DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute, Women Involved in Nation-Building (WIN), Women Working for Working Mothers (WOW) and Philippines Nurses Association all lauded the bills and even emphasized that these proposed measures will have the holistic approach to plug the loopholes found in EO 51 and its RIRR.

Gunigundo wrote that he strongly believes that “the final draft of the proposed measure will be in harmony with the WHO Code, EO 5 (Milk Code) and RA 10028 (Expanded Breastfeeding Act of 2009). Our objective is to strengthen, not weaken, our breastfeeding laws.”

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The Organic Farmers Market at the Quezon City Circle sells organically grown herbs and vegetables and cooked foods Saturdays and Sundays. The project gathers small entrepreneurs using natural fertilizers in their gardens and farms, such as herbs, beans and lettuce, tomatoes and pipino, okra, eggplants, sayote, and root crops. Also on sale are seedlings of passion fruit, guyabano, lemon grass, mint and other herbs that one can grow in one’s garden. In addition, Tsiborg offers dishes like pinakbet, tilapia cooked in coconut milk, and chicken-pork adobo all served with organic rice. Coconut products, including milk and ice cream, are also best-sellers. Fruit juices, guyabano tea, and bread with malunggay, Shing-a-Ling chicharon and dressed chicken and fresh fish complete the food offerings at the Circle.

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